Warning: I might say very negative things about you cousin in this thread if you start linking any bullshit like:

or anything with Bear Grylls name on it I can get a bit hipster about this stuff

that said, I couldnt help myself from buying one of these despite it being flashy, because god damn:

omnoom: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8F9xH1lHmM#t=1m35s
but I'd argue its a design piece and the steel is top notch (layered san mai and VG-10), I would just never ever take it close to somewhere it might get scratched

Knife making update:
noticed I seem to have fucked up polish on one of the knifes sides today when I saw it in proper light. might have to use rougher sanding paper again and redo that side.there is a darkened bit that really stands out in the right angle either I burned the polish, left some oil trapped under surface without noticing or its leftover epoxy that had a wierd reaction :S super annoying as I was planning to work on the blade tomorrow

do u cut urself much while making knives?

no, I make sure to cover the blade (as you can see in the pics). I put tough cardboard over the edge part (like for a shoe box or cereal pack) then wrap the whole blade in masking tape (has glue that isnt meant to stick forever and is easy to remove. same stuff you use to mask windows, edges of stuff, electrical sockets etc when painting your walls for example)

most bad cuts usually happen when doing food prepping tbh big long knives that are sharp and usually all wet and slippery

Warning noted: will not be posting pics.
You're right, they definitely aren't anywhere near the quality you're working with.

Btw descriptions of the polish you messed are good, but post pics with it if you can, they add a lot to updates edit: although I guess there's not much point in this instance, nevermind me

its one of those things that only really shows when you move it in the light so you wont spot it unless you spin it under a bright one like I do here:



still annoys the shit out of me so going to sand it down and see tomorrow. wierd though, did not see it at all yesterday. maybe I didnt wait enough and ended up with a layer of oil trapped. sure looks like that.

but post pics, was only joking (although will still make fun of fantasy blades if they are silly)

Part 4 - I am a noob
This endeavour has taught me so much stuff I wish I could start over. fucked up three things today.

1. I sanded down the handle again on one side to get rid of the miscoloration. The good thing was that this worked. The bad thing was I was running very low on CCL polish, so opted to try pure shellack politur instead. This stuff is a nightmare to work with, it dries so insanely fast and once it dries, if you havent speeded up a lot and gone easier on the rubbing it tears the entire coat and you gotto start over. so mad. The CCL is expensive as balls, but so worth it. might be possible to get the same feel to the politur, but not sure what I can dilute it with, maybe oil and alcohol, but I will probably just keep trying. last coating went well enough, but you need to do 3-4 and if one fucks up you gotto start over again
here is a picture of the sad knife being sanded down:


2. Apparently my tape to protect the blade wasnt good enough and there has been some rusting going down under it. now blade will never be perfect and have little gritmarks and/or scrathes from removing rust. next time I will oil blade, wrap it in clingwrap, then tape it to avoid this

3. Todays task was to cut in jimping on the top of the blade to rest your thumb or forefinger. Example picture (pretty sure its a spyderco delica):

Its basically grooves that stop your hand from slipping forward on the blade. Tactical (read: for murder) knives need to have this so you can stab ppl without hurting yourself. Its also useful when doing tip work as the finger on the top gives you more control. it also looks nice. There are special files that create these grooves that the pros use. I dont have one and I dont think you can buy one in sweden so going with the GHETTO SOLUTION. I take my dremel tool's cutting blades and stack them together. as spacer between them I cut up an old credit card and drilled holes in it. works pretty damn well actually:


Since I can only fixate one part its really important to only cut ONCE. If you go back to improve it a second time you will miss a bit and scratch the top (did this. wont do it again). Here are the finished jimping (bit blurry):


Next task - sheath
I was going to do a kydex sheath, but the way the knife looks I think a traditional leather sheath will look cooler, so I went shopping for leatherwork supplies today. I'm going to do a traditional american fold over design and not a scandi one because its a little simpler, and I prefer the look. This is one design i think looks amazing (also has holder for fire steel):

The problem is I have no fucking clue how to get rivets like that. its way way too thick for regular eyelets (its 3 layers of leather there). Might ask on some crafting forum, but the swedish knife maker guys I talked to today had no idea which bodes badly :S Quite likely I will settle for something like this:

not as cool looking, but those rivets

I also need to figure out a logo to stamp on sheath before I can get going (needs to be done while leather is wet and soft), and maybe also to put on blade if I want to get into the magical world of etching with electricity

This reminds me I wanted to stitch some hard-cases for my cameras. Will watch with interest.

that is probably quite difficult pattern/design wise, although the rest of the handling should be identical. I'll be doing this durign the week.

about the rivets btw, a forum reply from britishblades.com





seems very difficult to find as he said. linking this for future personal reference: http://www.dtpsupplies.com/pdf/tube.pdf